Clarke takes blame for 'one-off' defeat

The home secretary, Charles Clarke, today insisted that last night's unprecedented government defeat was a "one-off", and blamed himself for misjudging the mood of the House of Commons.

But as the cabinet met today in the wake of Tony Blair's first defeat in power, the former press secretary to John Major, Sir Christopher Meyer, said the "smell" of decay now hung over Downing Street.

Speaking on Sky News this morning, Mr Clarke conceded that the vote - the first the government has lost since 1997 - was a "major defeat" .

"I regret it very much," he said. "I criticise myself for my own failure to win that argument in the way that I would have liked to do so. The judgment I made, unfortunately, wrongly as it turned out, was that there would be a majority in the House for the 90 days, plus this important concession of the sunset clause to give people a year to look at it."

Yet at this morning's lobby briefing, the prime minister's official spokesman said there was "no way" Mr Clarke - or the chief whip, Hilary Armstrong - should take the blame for last night's bigger than expected defeat. He added that the full cabinet praised Ms Armstrong's efforts.

Following a pre-scheduled meeting between the PM and police and security services in Downing Street, Mr Blair's spokesman reiterated the prime minister's view that there was now a "worrying gap" between parliament and the public on the reality of the terrorist threat.

Mr Clarke had made a tour of TV and radio stations this morning before attending cabinet to put the best gloss on last night's rebellion by 49 Labour MPs.

He insisted the PM had not pushed him to press the case for 90 days' detention without charge against his will - but he reserved some venom for Labour's "serial rebels" who were "hell-bent" on trying to defeat the government.

"You do have a group of people who are utterly determined to punch Tony Blair on the nose," he said. "People like Bob Marshall-Andrews work with the Tories, actively conspire to arrange votes where that can happen."

Speaking on GMTV, Mr Clarke said: "Yesterday was a combination of serial rebels, the opposition voting without respect for the issues, and a number of individuals profoundly worried about the civil liberties issue, voting that way."

Mr Clarke denied the defeat was damaging to Mr Blair. He said the prime minister had made it clear he would listen to critics of other controversial policies.

"I am certain that the PM will want, on all the issues of change, to discuss right across the party, the direction that we are going and the way which we are trying to go about it, in a great deal of detail," he said.

And he insisted that Mr Blair did not railroad him into pushing the 90-day proposal.

"He [Mr Blair] is nothing like the private dictator that he is sometimes portrayed as being," said Mr Clarke. "I have also been clear, however, that it was my job to try to get a vote through the House of Commons. And if there wasn't a majority for 90 in the Commons, then to try to find a majority for something else and to seek a consensus along that basis.

"What happened over the weekend was a very strong comeback (from MPs) saying go for the 90, because that is the right thing, you may well be able to get it through the Commons, particularly if you put a sunset clause in, combined with the opposition parties saying they under no circumstances would go above 28.

"Those two factors led me to think, wrongly unfortunately as it turned out, that we could win a majority in the House for 90 days and the sunset clause. That is why we went on that course."

Rebel backbencher Paul Flynn, meanwhile, said the parliamentary Labour party would no longer be Mr Blair's "poodle", and called on the prime minister to set out a "road map" for his succession.

Other controversial measures on the horizon include the education bill and ID cards.

Mr Blair's most likely successor, Gordon Brown, is now back in the Middle East for his tour of Israel and the occupied territories.

The bill itself will receive its third reading in the Commons today before going to the Lords, although the amendment over 90 days was the most controversial element. Mr Blair will meet police and security services today to assess the implications of last night's defeat.

Downing Street said the talks at No 10 were a routine, pre-arranged meeting with senior officers to discuss counter-terrorism issues.

Also interviewed on the radio this morning, Sir Christopher Meyer, Britain's former ambassador to Washington and a former press secretary to the last Tory prime minister, John Major, said: "There is a smell about things which reminds me of the last years of John Major.

"You have got to be careful about this. History very rarely repeats itself. We will just have to wait and see. But there is a smell, yeah."